Stimulus Slicksters: Redistribution Has Become
A Danger To America

JOBS LOST IN 11 FULL MONTHS SINCE PASSING THE STIMULUS/PORKULUS/SCAMULUS JOB KILLING BILL----3.4 Million

Pittsburgh Tribune

TribLive.Com

The Walpin case: An IG fights back

Monday, July 27, 2009

Excerpts:

Gerald Walpin isn't going quietly. And the nation is better for his tenacious defense of the integrity of federal officials who play the role of watchdog on taxpayers' behalf.

Mr. Walpin, who brought to light misuse of AmeriCorps funds by a buddy of the president, was fired on June 10 from his post as inspector general for the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps. The firing violated the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, which guards against political removal of IGs. The measure was co-sponsored by then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Walpin's call for a congressional hearing into this scandal fell on deaf ears on Democrat-controlled Capitol Hill. But rather than just return to his legal practice in New York, he's standing up for IGs' integrity through a federal lawsuit.

Full article Pittsburgh Tribune

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

July 10, 2009

The Stimulus -- The Anatomy of a Failure

By Rich Lowry

Excerpts:

Barack Obama spent all of 2008 running against the sputtering economy and warned earlier this year of a crisis "we may not be able to reverse." Yet, as the unemployment rate climbs beyond the administration's projections, Vice President Joe Biden informs us that the administration "misread how bad the economy was."

Apparently we were going to experience a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression without a particularly high unemployment rate. This was the promise of the Obama administration, which indulged in hair-raisingly alarmist economic rhetoric while pumping out unduly hopeful economic projections. If the Reagan administration gave us the rosy scenario, the Obama administration has given us the rosy apocalypse.

The rosy apocalypse is an artifact of both ideological naïveté and knowing cynicism. The administration genuinely believed, against all historical experience, that government spending would boost us out of the recession. And it knew it had to assume an unrealistically rapid, robust economic recovery, because otherwise the already-horrid deficit projections would look worse. So Obama talked up the crisis to get the stimulus passed, and after that . . . happy days again!

Full article Rich Lowry Real Clear Politics

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

July 3, 2009

The June Jobs Report Tells a Bad Story

By Larry Kudlow

Excerpts:

After nine months of explosive monetary and fiscal stimulus, you'd think economic recovery would be upon us. But the June jobs report tells a much different story.

Non-farm payrolls fell by 467,000 as the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent. This isn't nearly as bad as the 700,000 monthly job losses of last winter, but it's still a rough number. Equally disappointing is the household survey -- often a key turning-point signal since it captures the health of small businesses -- which has dropped 811,000 in the past two months.

Donald Marron, a former senior economist with the Council of Economic Advisors and the CBO, calls it "a grim jobs report." Marron, digging deep into the Labor Department Statistics, says the continued decline in hours worked by private-sector employees, now 7 percent over the past year, is especially troublesome. He writes, "The economy is thus losing jobs and, for the jobs that remain, is losing hours worked. That double-whammy is bad news for the economy."

Full article Lawrence Kudlow Real Clear Politics

LOOKING BACK THIS SEEMS QUITE PERCEPTIVE

February 16, 2009

The Stimulus Bill Smells of Turpentine

By Paul Shlichta

Excerpts:

Excerpts:

I suspect that Obama has in mind a definite ulterior plan, for the sake of which he wants the current stimulus bill to fail to revive the economy.

The porcinity of the stimulus bill is beyond any question and well documented. But mingled with the bacony aroma that so inflames the appetites of politicians and lobbyists, there lies another odor -- the reek of turpentine.

I'm referring to the old story about the farmer who had a sick horse and wanted to call in a vet. His neighbor said "You don't need no vet. Just feed him turpentine: two spoonfuls a day." The farmer tried it and the horse got sicker. The neighbor said, "You're not giving him enough; double the dose." The farmer followed the advice, increasing the dose several times, until the horse finally died. While the farmer was burying it, the neighbor happened to drive by. When the farmer looked up at him, he hissed, "You didn't give him enough," and drove away.

Full article Paul Schlichta Americanthinker.Com

Nanny-State Media Spinning, Democrats This As "Encouraging"

Obama Press Secretary Now Talking About "The 2 Year Plan" Where

Did That Come From?

Bloomberg.Com

ADP Estimates U.S. Companies Cut Payrolls by 473,000

By Courtney Schlisserman

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. cut more jobs than forecast in June, according to a private report today, showing the labor market will be slow to improve even as other parts of the economy indicate the recession is abating.

The 473,000 drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge followed a revised reduction of 485,000 workers in May that was smaller than previously estimated.

Job losses may mount as the bankruptcies of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC ripple through manufacturing. Increased firings threaten to further restrain consumer spending at a time when the world’s largest economy is showing signs of stabilizing

Full article Courtney Schlisserman Bloomberg.Com

CNN Money

Special Report First 100 Days

Stopping stimulus waste

The government's massive plan to juice the economy is ripe for fraud, waste and corruption. See what's being done to keep it in check.

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Last Updated: February 20, 2009: 11:26 AM ET

Excerpts:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- So they've done it. Lawmakers passed a nearly $800 billion stimulus plan - roughly the equivalent of an entire year's of discretionary government spending - in just over a month.

Now who's going to make sure all that money isn't wasted?

When signing the bill Tuesday, President Obama made big promises.

"It's a plan that will be implemented with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability," Obama told a crowd in Denver. "With a recovery package of this size comes a responsibility to assure every taxpayer that we are being careful with the money they worked so hard to earn."

Full article Steve Hargreaves CNN Money

MARKET WATCH

Swindlers, con men, and thieves could siphon off as much as $50 billion

Jun 12, 2009, 4:41 p.m. EST

Fraudsters eye huge stimulus pie, consultant says

Companies will face extra requirements to prevent problems

By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch

Excerpts:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Swindlers, con men, and thieves could siphon off as much as $50 billion of the government's planned stimulus package as the money begins flooding the economy in coming months, according to David Williams, who runs Deloitte Financial Services Advisory and counsels clients on fraud prevention.

Williams predicted that about $500 billion of the total $787 billion stimulus would be channeled into the traditional procurement network for government contracts, while the rest will be spent directly by the government or outside the corporate network.

"The rule of thumb typically is that of the about $500 billion worth of money that's going to run through the procurement process, somewhere between 5% and 10% of that usually finds it way into potential problems," Williams said. "That's sort of the benchmark that I use."

Full article Greg Morcroft MarketWatch.Com

WALL STREET JOURNAL

An Inconvenient Tax

Cap and trade yields 'climate revenues.' But don't call it a t--.

FEBRUARY 27, 2009, 12:27 A.M. ET

Full article WALL STREET JOURNAL

Excerpts:

That didn't take long. The same week that President Obama promised (again) that "95% of working families" would not see their taxes rise by "a single dime," his own budget reveals that taxes will rise for 100% of everyone for the sake of global warming. Ahem.

You don't even have to burrow into yesterday's budget fine print to discover the "climate revenues" section, where the White House discloses that it expects $78.7 billion in new tax revenue in 2012 from its cap-and-trade program.

The pot of cash grows to $237 billion through 2014, and at least $646 billion through 2019. If this isn't tax revenue, what is it? Manna from heaven? The offset from Al Gore's carbon footprint?

If it brings in revenue that the government then spends, it's a tax, and politicians should start referring to it as such.

Stimulus Slicksters

The Administration in fact projects that these "climate revenues" will become the sixth largest source of federal receipts by 2019, outpaced only by individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and (barely) excise taxes. We're supposed to be living in a new era of fiscal honesty, so let's start with cap and trade.

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted Friday, February 20, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Last Oct. 13, in trying to explain why the market had sold off 30% in six weeks, we acknowledged that the freeze-up of the financial system was a big concern. But we cited three other factors as well:

Is It Any Wonder The Market Continues To Sink?

Full article INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Excerpts:

• The imminent election of "the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party."

• The possibility of "a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal."

• A "media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises."

No wonder, we said then, that panic had set in.

Today, as the market continues to sell off and we plumb 12-year lows, we wish we had a different explanation. But it still looks, as we said four months ago, "like the U.S., which built the mightiest, most prosperous economy the world has ever known, is about to turn its back on the free-enterprise system that made it all possible."

CBS News

Jindal Signals Louisiana May Not Take Stimulus Money

Posted by Brian Montopoli

February 17, 2009, 2:40 PM

Full article Brian Montopoli CBS NEWS

Excerpts:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, has suggested his state may not be interested in all of the roughly $4 billion allotted to it in the economic stimulus package to be signed by President Obama today.

"We'll have to review each program, each new dollar to make sure that we understand what are the conditions, what are the strings and see whether it's beneficial for Louisiana to use those dollars," Jindal said, according to CBS affiliate WWLTV.

Jindal is scheduled to give the response to the president’s not-exactly-a-state-of-the-union address next Tuesday.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Real Stimulus Burden

We'll be paying for this in many ways, for many years.

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Full article WALL STREET JOURNAL

Excerpts:

In 2003, amid debate about the Bush tax cuts and a budget deficit of merely $400 billion, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe demanded that any tax cuts be capped at $350 billion.

"At a time of growing federal deficits," the Republican declared to much media praise, "it is especially important that this plan be right-sized without putting our future at risk."[Review & Outlook] AP

Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Max Baucus, Harry Reid and Arlen Specter.

Flash forward to Tuesday: Ms. Snowe provided one of three crucial GOP votes that helped Democrats pass $838 billion in new spending and "tax cuts" -- often for people who pay no taxes. The deficit for 2009 even before this stimulus? $1.2 trillion.

If nothing else good comes from this exercise, at least Senators Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter should be laughed out of town if they ever fret about a budget deficit again.

WHIP FACTS:

A Comparison of the "Final" Democrat Spending Bill and the House Republican Economic Recovery Plan

February 12, 2009

Contact:Brad Dayspring

202-226-5249

Full article Eric Cantor's Office Republican Whip

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today released a comparison of the "final" Democrat Spending bill and the House Republican Economic Recovery Plan.

Please note that "final" is in quotations as the actual bill has yet to be released by Congressional Democrats and save for those who met behind closed-doors yesterday, no one knows the "final" bill text except what they have heard through press reports and rumor.

ANALYSIS(As No Text Has Been Provided To The General Public, This Analysis Is Based On Press Reports And Rumor)

Cost:

Stimulus Slicksters

• Cost of the "Final" Democrat Spending Bill: $790 Billion

• Cost of the House Republican Alternative: $477 Billion

Jobs:

• Number of Jobs Created by the "Final" Democrat Spending Bill: 3.5 million

• Number of Jobs Created by the House Republican Alternative: 6.2 million

Stimulus Slicksters

Tax Cuts:

• Percentage of Bill that President Obama Wanted for Tax Relief: 40%

• Percentage of "Final" Democrat Spending Bill Dedicated for Tax Relief: 26%

• Percentage of "Final" Democrat Spending Bill Dedicated for Tax Relief Minus the Alternative Minimum Tax Patch, Which Doesn't Provide any American with new Tax Relief: 17.5%

Stimulus Slicksters

Tax Relief For Working Families:

• "Final" Democrat Spending Bill: Tax relief phased-out for some income taxpayers. Congressional Democrats reduced middle class tax relief by $29 billion to fund their spending priorities for "pet projects" for mice and golf carts.

Benefit is now capped at $400 a year for an individual and $800 a year for a married couple.

For an individual, the tax relief equates to:

Stimulus Slicksters

$7.70 a week

$1.10 a day

19 cents a working hour

• House Republican Alternative: Tax relief for 100% of income taxpayers. Minimum average relief would be $500 per year. Most families would see relief closer to $1,500 per year. A married couple will see relief as high as $3,200 a year.

Stimulus Slicksters

Tax Relief For Small Businesses:

• "Final" Democrat Spending Bill: No provision.

• House Republican Alternative: Tax deduction equal to 20% of their income for those small businesses with 500 or fewer employees.

Tax Relief For Employers:

Stimulus Slicksters

• "Final" Democrat Spending Bill: While initially identical, the "final" bill limited this benefit to firms with limited income, leaving out not only large employers, but also many small businesses. Initially, research indicated that over 290,000 employers, with a combined total of over 77 million employees, could be excluded from this tax relief as a result of this last minute change.

• House Republican Alternative: Allow employers to offset their current losses against past tax liabilities (net operating loss carryback)

WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Real Stimulus Burden

Feb. 12, 2009

We'll be paying for this in many ways, for many years.

Full article Wall Street Journal

Excerpts:

In 2003, amid debate about the Bush tax cuts and a budget deficit of merely $400 billion, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe demanded that any tax cuts be capped at $350 billion.

"At a time of growing federal deficits," the Republican declared to much media praise, "it is especially important that this plan be right-sized without putting our future at risk."[Review & Outlook] AP

Flash forward to Tuesday: Ms. Snowe provided one of three crucial GOP votes that helped Democrats pass $838 billion in new spending and "tax cuts" -- often for people who pay no taxes. The deficit for 2009 even before this stimulus? $1.2 trillion.

If nothing else good comes from this exercise, at least Senators Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter should be laughed out of town if they ever fret about a budget deficit again.

CBS NEWS

Other People's Money

Pork & Pet Projects

Declan McCullagh Ladles Out The Lard In The Stimulus Package

Full article Declan McCullagh CBS News

Excerpts:

(CBS) During his first press conference as president this week, Barack Obama seemed irked that most congressional Republicans remained opposed to the so-called stimulus legislation.Obama attributed it to philosophical differences, saying: "Some of the criticisms really are with the basic idea that government should intervene at all in this moment of crisis."

Not really. It's possible to want the government to take quick steps to turn around what has become an unusually sharp and severe recession -- while believing that the current proposal is not the best way to do it.

As you might expect, a bill that was supposed to come in at a comparatively svelte $300 billion has ballooned to an impressive girth, thanks to Democrats stuffing it with pet projects of dubious virtue. Now this porker has swollen to 800 pages.

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE.COM

James K. Glassman

March 2009

Subject: SPECIAL PREVIEW Stimulus:

A History of Folly

Full article James Glassman COMMENTARY MAGAZINE.COM

Excerpts:

Before he was sworn in as President, Barack Obama began to lay out his plans for reviving an American economy that, it would later be discovered, had declined 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, its worst performance in 26 years.

About the first part of his project, “stimulating” businesses to invest and consumers to consume through government spending and tax remittances, he was forthcoming and enthusiastic.

About the second, stabilizing the financial system, he wished to reserve judgment.

He anointed the stimulus proposal with a convenient and vivid metaphor. “We’re going to have to jump start this economy with my economic recovery plan,” he said on January 3.

Stimulus Slicksters

According to the image, one can jolt a dormant economy into action just as one can hook up polarized cables to a car battery, clamp a defibrillator to the chest, or breathe into the ear of a reluctant lover.

Suddenly, the object of our attention will be back in action, aroused.

Alas, the questions raised by a proposed stimulus—whether to apply it, what sort it should be, how much it should cost, and when it should begin and end—are far trickier to answer than problems involving dead batteries.

And, remarkably enough, history and economic research offer no conclusive answers. The recession that began in 2008 could turn out to be the worst slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

For three-quarters of a century, economists have been studying it diligently. And even now they cannot come to a definitive conclusion about the cause of that depression, the reasons for its severity and duration, or what cured it.

In an introduction to a book of essays on the Great Depression he compiled in 2000,

Ben S. Bernanke, then a Princeton professor and now chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, wrote, “Finding an explanation for the worldwide economic collapse of the 1930’s remains a fascinating intellectual challenge.”

Today, of course, the challenge is more than intellectual.

THE FIERCE URGENCY OF PORK

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

February 06, 2009

So Much For Hope Over Fear

By Charles Krauthammer

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Full Charles Krauthammer REAL CLEAR POLITICS

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON -- Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

February 05, 2009

What Is Congress Stimulating?

By Daniel Henninger

Full article Daniel Henninger REAL CLEAR POLITICS

Excerpts:

Contrary to conventional Beltway wisdom, the House Republicans' zero votes for the Obama presidency's stimulus "package" is looking like the luckiest thing to happen to the GOP's political fortunes since Ronald Reagan switched parties. If the GOP line holds, the party could win back much of the goodwill it dissipated with its big-government adventures the past eight years.

For starters, notwithstanding the new president's high approval rating, his stimulus bill (ghost-written by Nancy Pelosi) has been losing altitude with public opinion by the day. People are nervous.

Then after Tim Geithner scampered through the tax minefield and into a Cabinet seat, the Daschle tax bomb went off, laying open for public view the world of Washington's pay-for-favors that makes the average Wall Street banker look like Little Bo-Peep.

The Weekly Standard

Too Much, Too Fast

Democrats need spending sobriety.

by Gary Andres

02/05/2009 12:00:00 AM

Full article Gary Andres The Weekly Standard

Excerpts:

"CONGRESS IS LIKE A whiskey drinker," President Lyndon Johnson once observed. "You can put an awful lot of whiskey into a man if you just let him sip it," he said. "But if you try to force the whole bottle down his throat at one time, he'll throw it up."

The 36th president and former Senate majority leader was referring to Congress's ability to produce legislative outcomes -- too much activity inebriates the system. Congressional Democrats learned the hard way this week as the bloated economic stimulus bill stalled in the Senate. Moderation in all things--including the speed with which they grow the federal government--is a virtue. The problem is House Democrats just didn't have the temperance to just say no.

That lack of self-restraint is now producing political headaches. After eight years of bumping heads with a Republican president, many liberals in Congress believe voters just gave them the keys to the spending liquor cabinet. There is so much pent-up demand for funding new projects, Democrats run the risk of ignoring President Johnson's admonition, creating a fiscal--and political--mess.

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

February 05, 2009

What's Missing From the Economic Discussion

By Carl J. Schramm

Full article Carl J.Schramm REAL CLEAR POLITICS

Excerpts:

In the debate over what to do about America's fiscal crisis and ailing economy, one word is conspicuously absent: growth.

One's gut reaction might be to ask: What does growth have to do with the banking crisis? How could growth have made sense of complex new instruments such as CDOs and CDSs?

Well, for one thing, sustained high growth might have produced sufficient gains in personal income to keep more people from defaulting on their mortgages.

UNIONLEADER.COM

Bad medicine: Stimulus bill is sickening

23 hours, 9 minutes ago

Full article Union Leader.Com

Excerpts:

The alleged "stimulus" bill passed by the U.S. House Wednesday night is a cynical fraud committed upon a trusting American people whose hopes politicians are cruelly exploiting.

We were told that the bill will get the economy moving by upgrading America's infrastructure. Of the $550 billion in new spending, only $30 billion goes to highway construction. Another $13.1 billion goes to other Department of Transportation spending and $20 billion to renovating public schools.Editorial logoClick for Editorials & Op-Eds

We were told that it would keep people from winding up on the streets. Only $11 billion goes to housing assistance.

We were told that it would help Americans who got laid off. Only $4.6 billion goes to employment and training programs, and $27 billion to expand unemployment benefits. (By contrast, the bill raises Medicaid spending by $89 billion.)

REAL CLEAR POLITICS

January 29, 2009

Economic Stimulus or Opportunism?

By George Will

Full article George Will Real Clear Politics

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON -- Summoned to remove a fish bone agonizingly stuck in a rich man's throat, British surgeon Joseph Lister did so. When the grateful patient asked the charge for this service, Lister replied: "Suppose we settle for half of what you would be willing to give me if the bone were still lodged in your throat." The point -- that the price one will pay depends on the urgency of the purchase -- is pertinent to the president's "stimulus" proposal.

Frightened people are receptive to his pleas for large and quick action: Just do it -- we'll count the cost later. As Emerson said, when skating on thin ice, safety lies in speed, and the administration's confidence in what it is doing should be -- this is not its fault -- thin.

Economic policymaking in turbulent times is a science of single instances, meaning no science at all. When economic theories matter most -- when the economy is in uncharted waters -- all theories are necessarily untested. Hence attempts to derive prescriptions from the New Deal are somewhat surreal.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

A 40-Year Wish List

Stimulus Slicksters You won't believe what's in that stimulus bill.

January 28, 2009

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

Full article WALL STREET JOURNAL

Excerpts:

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.[Review & Outlook] AP

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make "dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy." Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.

CLUB FOR GROWTH

The Job-Destroying Stimulus Bill

Visit Club For Growth

How Many Jobs Will the Stimulus Bill Destroy?

Washington – As President Obama attempts to sell his stimulus bill as a job-creating force, the most important question to ask the new president is: How many jobs will his stimulus bill destroy?

The billions of dollars in projects contained in the stimulus bill must come from someplace. It doesn’t grow on trees, and it won’t materialize out of thin air. This money comes straight out of the private sector where it would be spent far more efficiently than anything the government will attempt. Already we are seeing the inefficiency and waste that plagues the government spending process—with pork projects being slipped in by the thousands.

“After months of promising ‘change,’ the pork-filled stimulus bill looks like business-as-usual on steroids,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Can anyone really argue that spending money on a water park in Miami and a beach in New Jersey will stimulate the economy?”

Democrats put their belief in the so-called multiplier effect—the notion that each dollar of government spending results in a dollar and a half’s worth of economic growth. There is no evidence to sustain this theory. If there were, why in the world would Congress stop the spending at a trillion dollars?

President Obama’s “green jobs” campaign is similarly flawed. Promoting “green jobs” through government subsidies will surely create new jobs, but it will destroy many more jobs as it willfully forces the nation to waste money to produce energy in an inefficient manner. These subsidies will consume resources that would have otherwise been available to be spent and invested in the economy.

“The stimulus bill is based on the totally backward idea that government can conjure up economic growth out of the clear blue sky,” Mr. Toomey added. “The source of wealth, income, and jobs lies not with the government but with production. The best way to stimulate the economy is to look for ways to restore the natural incentive to produce, and the best way to do that is to cut taxes. The Republican Study Committee’s proposal is an excellent example of what a stimulus bill should look like. President Obama’s spending frenzy is exactly the opposite.”

“These are serious times, and we cannot afford half-hearted opposition and tentative challenges. With the prospect of $1 trillion in mostly wasteful projects looming on the horizon, now is the time for our representatives to raise their voices and demand real change from our new president.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL

Watch Out for Stimulus 'Leaks'

The architect of Kennedy's tax cuts would have been skeptical of the Obama plan.

By GEORGE MELLOAN

January 26, 2009

Full article George Melloan WALL STREET JOURNAL

Excerpts:

In economics textbooks the "leaky bucket" principle holds that when government transfers income or wealth from rich to poor a lot leaks out and is wasted. Some estimates put the leakage at most of what is meant for the poor, especially if you measure the damage to economic efficiency from the reduced work incentives of both the donor and the recipient.

The leaky bucket metaphor was coined years ago by Arthur Okun, a Yale economist who advised John F. Kennedy and later became chief economic adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson. Okun was a leading architect of the Kennedy tax cuts, passed shortly after the president's death with salutary economic effects. Because those cuts sharply reduced the top marginal rates on income, Okun has been called the first supply-sider -- one who worked for Democratic presidents no less. In his day, he would have been called a classical economist.The Opinion Journal Widget

Although Okun's rule focused specifically on "antipoverty" programs, it can be argued that nearly all government outlays are transfers. Money from taxpayers and the credit markets goes to uses chosen by Congress. Thus, the leaky bucket has special application now as Democrats grope for ways to use wealth transfers to revive the economy

House GOP Wants Stimulus Input Following Critical Report

A Congressional Budget Office report says proposed stimulus money for construction, and school and highway repair, would only drip -- not gush -- into the economy.

By Jim Angle

FOXNews.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Full article Fox News.com

Excerpts:

House Republicans want to strike some compromises with the White House over the Democratic economic stimulus plan, after a new report showed the plan could take as long as 10 years to work its way into the economy.

The report came from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and said proposed money for construction, and school and highway repair, would only drip -- not gush -- into the economy.

"When it comes to slow-moving government spending programs, it's clear that it doesn't create the jobs or preserve the jobs that need to happen," House Republican Leader John Boehner said.

Crankonomics

Going Dopey On Infrastructure

Susan Lee, 01.23.09, 12:01 AM EST

Why should the public crowd out the private?

Full article Susan Lee Forbes.Com

Excerpts:

It's not polite. The man, who has barely moved into his new office, wants to give us an $825 billion Valentine gift. But already everybody's complaining. Democrats don't like the tax breaks, Republicans don't like spending so much money.

So, it's not polite--but let me pile on. Plopping down $90 billion on infrastructure is a dopey idea.Article Controls

Lots of people drive on bumpy roads, cross perilous bridges and wonder if their kidneys will be shaken to death on Amtrak. That makes the idea of improving the transportation system seductive.

But here's the problem.

Using infrastructure spending as a stimulus requires a big blob of money all at once. And a big blob of money might choke off nascent drive to privatize.

NRO

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

Overstimulating Spending

Obama offers a wish list, not an economic agenda.

By the Editors

Full article NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

Excerpts:

A new Congressional Budget Office report on the economic stimulus package has added a measure of clarity to the debate. We now have a much better idea of what President Obama and the Democrats mean by “stimulus.” They do not mean those policies that will provide the greatest boost to economic activity. They mean those policies that will stimulate the economy within the narrow bounds of what partisanship and ideology will allow, plus some policies that are wholly unrelated to economic stimulus.

The most notable evidence for this is the CBO finding that that less than 40 percent of the discretionary spending in the stimulus bill would be used in the first 18 months. Obama’s aides once stressed the importance of spending the bulk of the money before 2011. Now David Axelrod, his chief adviser, tells us to take a longer view. A spokesman for Speaker Pelosi encourages us to see the post-recession expenditures as “down payments on crucial priorities for our economic future.” The question arises: Crucial priorities according to whom?

Consider the $18.5 billion proposed for renewable-energy projects, less than $3 billion of which would be spent by 2011. Even if we conceded, for argument’s sake, that the initial $3 billion would boost the economy in the short run by putting people to work and increasing demand for things like steel and concrete, why should we agree to spend the additional $15.5 billion when we do not share the green lobby’s passion for such projects? Clearly, the extra money is being ramrodded through Congress in the guise of “economic stimulus,” though it is actually the opposite of that.

Stimulus Deferred

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Economy: President Obama has asked Congress for a big stimulus package that could be put to work right away. Congress' answer, to spend $355 billion on infrastructure and other programs, comes up way short.

Full article INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Excerpts:

The idea behind a "stimulus" package is to give the slumping economy an immediate boost. At least, that's how we've been sold on the need for $825 billion in new spending. President Obama himself, in Tuesday's inaugural address, called for "bold and swift" action on the economy.

But now comes a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that says of the $355 billion tagged by House leaders in their plan for infrastructure and other discretionary outlays, only $136 billion would be spent by October 2010.

"The rest," noted a Washington Post story, "would come in future years, long after the CBO and other economists predict the recession will have ended." In short, it's not stimulus at all. And it's certainly not "bold and swift."

Stimulus Slicksters: Expanding Welfare In The EITC Program Is Not Tax Cuts

There is no more disguised or disgusting spin in the U.S. than that used to disguise what actually happens in the welfare program EITC—Earned Income Tax Credit.

The welfare payment in this program simply confiscates the labor of those who pay their fair share of all taxes due and turns it over mostly to high school dropouts and unwed mothers.

Stimulus Slicksters

Barack Obama wants to add a whopping $1000 maximum to recipients. He is calling this expanded welfare payment from the tens of millions who pay none of these taxes to begin with—tax cuts.

Stimulus Slicksters

After Joe The Plumber brought so much attention to how much America is against REDISTRIBUTION and Obama seemed to run from the term, he now returns to it with total nonchalance and deceptively tells American workers who are “net taxpayers”, because they pay all taxes in full, that he is proposing “tax cuts.”

Stimulus Slicksters

Stimulus Slicksters

Starting with this gigantic spending bill which long term is very, very likely to harm the economy rather than help it, Americans must start to become very active with telling their congressmen (House and Senate members that redistribution has gone too far).

FDR prolonged The Great Depression with almost identical action to all major portions of the this Democratic platform.

We let Democrats get away with the fact that that they can keep pulling capital and investment dollars out of the private sector and be put in a never ending avalanche of government boondoggles, which have a huge cost to say nothing of the corruption behind the schemers in congress who "bring home the bacon" to their constituents, paid for by the nation as a whole.